"Minority sport" takes on a whole new meaning when you compare the populations of the countries we're talking about: according to google (the font of all knowledge??), USA has over 307 million; New Zealand has fewer than 5 million. I have to say NZ really punches above its weight, given how small its skating population is!!
Why thank you
yes our skating population is very tiny! When you consider that there is a 2 rinks in the entire North island (run by the same people), if you then consult wiki you'll find that approx 1.3 million people live in my city - now how many people would you expect to participate in sports & then again in a very minor sport? People here aren't big on travel - I live 10mins from my rink, the other one is across the city about an hours drive (in good traffic) - you'd have to be really into the sport big time the travel that distance weekly or more.
However, a skate tech (as with anything else) is good only by comparison to his or her peers. My "good" tech might well be rated only average, or even worse than average, by comparison to US techs.
There is no such thing as a fitter/skate tech here, all the skating services we get are based out of the rink, the people hired by this shop are no different than many other jobs - they hire about half a dozen young men in their 20's who are mad on hockey, and probably may have skated in a competitive team that would probably pale in comparison to the 'experts' you get somewhere like the US & Canada. We all know though that being a skater isn't enough to be good at skates & skate services, and if you are a hockey skater you probably know squat about figure skaters.
When I got my skates I was helped by the head coach of our rink, and when they went to take the factor grind off my blades she knew how to do it, but would she be an expert - I doubt it. She turned my skates over to the shop assistant & asked if he knew how to sharpen figure blades - the answer filled me with confidence (not) 'I think so'.
Like you say Aussie - you simply cannot compare the level of service we get here to what you get in places like the US, I'll swap my 'pro shop' for an average US one, see who comes out worse - I'd bet it would not me...